I'm 50 this year. I've moved back to Ireland on four seperate occasions and it was always a complete fiasco. Moving from places where the basic services were in place. Functioning public transport and a general sense that what I put in comes back in the contract between me and the state. It's so refreshing to read and listen to someone that articulates the diasporas frustrations so well. Thank you. On a sombre note. If they've never lived anywhere else they'll never know anything.else. Keep it up. Love it.
Here's a quick supporting note to just one aspect of Sinéad's post.
It's a very rough AI assessment of state agencies and civil service strengths and weaknesses in infrastructure procurement and development. I have checked the sources and they seem pretty good, but no more than that. I have also taken out civil servant names.
Construction procurement policy
Moderate — dedicated CAPS unit with specialist staff
Gap in formally qualified procurement professionals (no visible MCIPS at senior civil service level)
Technical/engineering
Strong in agencies (TII has chartered engineers); weak in departments
Departments rely heavily on external technical advisers and consultants
Project/programme delivery (PM methods)
Present in TII and NTA; absent in core departments
No evidence of PRINCE2, MSP or structured PM frameworks in departmental civil service
Low evidenced capability in spending departments; regular consultant dependence
Planning & consenting
Weak across the board
An Coimisiún Pleanála faces its own upheaval post-Planning Act; consenting delays are systemic
Digital/BIM
Narrow dependency risk; not mainstreamed across the system
Commercial/contract management
Present in TII and OGP at HEO/specialist level
Thin at AP/PO levels in departments; PPP expertise concentrated in NDFA
Data and analytics
OECD explicitly identified data/analytics as a systemic civil service weakness in 2023
Legal/regulatory
No visible in-house legal specialists in infrastructure delivery
Core strengths
TII has genuine deep technical expertise: Chartered engineers, specialist procurement executives, and construction supervisors with European-level experience. This is the closest the Irish public sector comes to matching private sector depth in infrastructure
Specialist policy units exist: The CAPS/Construction Procurement Policy Unit and BIM/digital advisory function represent real accumulated expertise — narrow but genuine
NDFA provides PPP specialism: One person's role consolidates PPP procurement expertise that would otherwise be absent across the system
OGP has experienced procurement professionals: Staff who brought private sector supply chain experience in, represent a positive recruitment pattern
Core deficits
Generalist dominance in senior delivery roles: The overwhelming pattern in departmental civil service (DPEIPSRD, Housing, Transport) is administrative-grade staff in infrastructure roles. AP and PO grades making infrastructure procurement decisions lack the professional qualifications — MCIPS, MRICS, CEng, RIAI — that equivalent private sector roles routinely require
Structural over-reliance on consultants: The constant presence of KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and major law firms in Irish infrastructure advisory work is not a sign of sophistication — it is a sign that the civil service cannot self-sustain the expertise needed. This is expensive, creates intellectual dependency, and means institutional knowledge walks out the door with each engagement
One-person expertise risks: BIM expertise appears to be a genuine specialism but is dangerously concentrated in one individual's career trajectory. If he left, that capability would evaporate
New Infrastructure Division is still an experiment: Formed only in April 2025 and dependent on secondees from commercial semi-state bodies, the Division has not yet demonstrated whether it can retain and embed expertise or whether secondees will return to their home organisations after short rotations
Data and digital skills are systemically weak: The OECD's 2023 finding on this is unambiguous and consistent with international benchmarks. Infrastructure procurement increasingly requires skills in data analytics, digital twin technology, and AI-assisted contract management that the
Irish civil service has not yet developed at scale
Grade-skill mismatch is structural: The Irish civil service does not have a formal "Project Delivery Profession" or "Commercial Profession" track equivalent to the UK's — meaning there is no career architecture that would attract, retain, and develop qualified infrastructure specialists.
One person's progression from AO to AP within the procurement/infrastructure space illustrates the generalist pathway: administratively competent, institutionally experienced, but not professionally accredited
I trust you do not mind my drawing attention to a most egregious example of the politics of grand gestures replacing quiet competence over decades - with specific reference to enhancing public transport in the Dublin area. In 1998, the Government decided on a light rail system for Dublin - now LUAS. The original proposal was for one system. Dublin Chamber of Commerce, CIE and the then Director of Traffic for Dublin Corporation lobbied against this on-street network. This led to building two non-interconnected lines. Nearly 30 years later, these lines are still not-interconnected for passenger services. That 1998 decision also included extending the Green Line to Broadstone - via a short tunnel and on to the Airport, using the then unbuilt railway cutting to the Royal Canal. Detailed studies were done, which I still have. One result was the distance between the two rail beds was increased on the Green Line to allow for higher speeds using LUAS trams built for underground running. This 1998 decision was not acted on in the 2000s when the Green LUAS was extended -on-street - to Broadstone. Now the latest wheeze is a ~€16bn. boondoggle Metrolink. This will not be interoperable with either the ~25 year old LUAS or the commuter services on the older heavy rail eg. DART. If built, it will not add experience or build up skills or create supply chains needed for other LUAS type-projects in Cork, Galway or even Dublin. It is an example of "strategic misrepresentation" reinforced by a planning system that has been reduced little more than a limited form of building control, anchored in a view of government as the bureaucratic mediation of interest groups. In October 2015, at the annual meeting of the Dublin Economic Workshop I proposed a North Dublin LUAS Loop and have continued to do so eg. most recently a year ago https://cassandravoices.com/science-environment/does-dublin-require-3-railway-systems/ FYI, I was among a group of residents' associations which proposed and actively campaigned for the Dublin Port Tunnel, even though it went under some of our members' homes. We supported it as one of a set of mutually reinforcing measures that would improve traffic management and enhance our areas.
Your article really struck me because I can recognise parts of what you are describing in ordinary life: people working, paying taxes, trying to contribute, and still feeling trapped by housing costs, public-service gaps, and constant financial pressure.
I also noticed your line about “pissing off the right people” being a sign that you are getting close to something important. I understand the need to provoke debate, but I’m wondering who you believe the “right people” are. Shouldn’t the pressure be directed mainly upwards, towards government, departments, policy-makers, and the systems that allow public money to flow outward without building lasting public capacity?
For people living inside this system now, what is the practical solution? What can ordinary working people actually do, individually or collectively, when the diagnosis is clear, but the pressures are immediate?
I may be wrong on the details, but my understanding is that Finland did not simply rely on market solutions. It used stronger public policy, including Housing First and citizen-led democratic mechanisms, to treat housing as a social necessity rather than just a private commodity.
So my question is: why can’t Ireland have the same level of public ambition? Why are ordinary workers left paying the price for a housing system that does not allow people to live affordably, move for work, or build a stable life?
Your writing is very sharp, and I can see that you have thought deeply about housing, public spending, and how ordinary people are being “super squeezed” with such realities!
Very insightful Sinead, I agree with most of what is said , however, we do have a successful export agency and some very successful food brands etc. However these are the exception for sure, the lack of capability at public level to deliver out services other than redistribute and collect money from the citizens of the country is a real issue for sure, we need a much more capable civil service who can deliver out infrastructure and planning at speed .
We suffer the same mediocrity as the rest of the world when it comes to politicians . Who would want to be a politician ?
As you have said this goes back to the foundations of the state and our party politics has perhaps stopped the civil service from moving forward and organising itself to be more aligned to the needs of the citizens it serves. It needs to be modernised and reshaped to the world we live in today , there are glimpses of ability in certain areas but very few and far between. I haven't heard one politician in government talk about the modernisation of the Civil Service and its service delivery.
There are very few senior civil servants household names ( Robert Watt maybe an exception) why is this so? I agree with you that we need to up our game at this level and encourage a culture of "Cathedral Thinking" rather than what can we get away with until the next Minister is appointed. How should we go about this?
So, we have two by-elections. Is it worth even voting? What if you voted for someone who eventually became a minister with no relevant qualifications running a multi billion departmental budget! And no backup systems in place to even guide them.
I love your analysis, please keep up the good work and describe solutions for us. For we truly are in trouble.
Something missing in the analysis of rental income, This is trickle down economics at work, crumbs of HAP policy works well for that ideological way of thinking,
The Government is the biggest winner from increasing rents through tax collection, and HAP is a token gesture to allow them to say they are doing something, they don't actually want lowers rents and encourage home ownership that would reduce tax collection.
Dead right on those “solution” mongers. Don’t let them deflect you from the problem analysis, Sinéad. Keep going. Staying with the problem is absolutely key. As per Socrates to Meno, “..To search for the solution of a problem is an absurdity. For either you know what you are looking for, and then there is no problem, or you do not know what you are looking for, and then you are not looking for anything and cannot expect to find anything..”. - Keep talking about the problems, describing them, and the proper solutions become unavoidable.
I'm 50 this year. I've moved back to Ireland on four seperate occasions and it was always a complete fiasco. Moving from places where the basic services were in place. Functioning public transport and a general sense that what I put in comes back in the contract between me and the state. It's so refreshing to read and listen to someone that articulates the diasporas frustrations so well. Thank you. On a sombre note. If they've never lived anywhere else they'll never know anything.else. Keep it up. Love it.
Incredible reading. Such a good way of explaining the current landscape.
Rentierism writ large.
I had to stop reading this. I was getting more and more angry and depressed.
Here's a quick supporting note to just one aspect of Sinéad's post.
It's a very rough AI assessment of state agencies and civil service strengths and weaknesses in infrastructure procurement and development. I have checked the sources and they seem pretty good, but no more than that. I have also taken out civil servant names.
Construction procurement policy
Moderate — dedicated CAPS unit with specialist staff
Gap in formally qualified procurement professionals (no visible MCIPS at senior civil service level)
Technical/engineering
Strong in agencies (TII has chartered engineers); weak in departments
Departments rely heavily on external technical advisers and consultants
Project/programme delivery (PM methods)
Present in TII and NTA; absent in core departments
No evidence of PRINCE2, MSP or structured PM frameworks in departmental civil service
Financial appraisal (Infrastructure Guidelines, CBA)
Moderate — DPEIPSRD has CBA guidance functions
Low evidenced capability in spending departments; regular consultant dependence
Planning & consenting
Weak across the board
An Coimisiún Pleanála faces its own upheaval post-Planning Act; consenting delays are systemic
Digital/BIM
Narrow dependency risk; not mainstreamed across the system
Commercial/contract management
Present in TII and OGP at HEO/specialist level
Thin at AP/PO levels in departments; PPP expertise concentrated in NDFA
Data and analytics
OECD explicitly identified data/analytics as a systemic civil service weakness in 2023
Legal/regulatory
No visible in-house legal specialists in infrastructure delivery
Core strengths
TII has genuine deep technical expertise: Chartered engineers, specialist procurement executives, and construction supervisors with European-level experience. This is the closest the Irish public sector comes to matching private sector depth in infrastructure
Specialist policy units exist: The CAPS/Construction Procurement Policy Unit and BIM/digital advisory function represent real accumulated expertise — narrow but genuine
NDFA provides PPP specialism: One person's role consolidates PPP procurement expertise that would otherwise be absent across the system
OGP has experienced procurement professionals: Staff who brought private sector supply chain experience in, represent a positive recruitment pattern
Core deficits
Generalist dominance in senior delivery roles: The overwhelming pattern in departmental civil service (DPEIPSRD, Housing, Transport) is administrative-grade staff in infrastructure roles. AP and PO grades making infrastructure procurement decisions lack the professional qualifications — MCIPS, MRICS, CEng, RIAI — that equivalent private sector roles routinely require
Structural over-reliance on consultants: The constant presence of KPMG, PwC, Deloitte, and major law firms in Irish infrastructure advisory work is not a sign of sophistication — it is a sign that the civil service cannot self-sustain the expertise needed. This is expensive, creates intellectual dependency, and means institutional knowledge walks out the door with each engagement
One-person expertise risks: BIM expertise appears to be a genuine specialism but is dangerously concentrated in one individual's career trajectory. If he left, that capability would evaporate
New Infrastructure Division is still an experiment: Formed only in April 2025 and dependent on secondees from commercial semi-state bodies, the Division has not yet demonstrated whether it can retain and embed expertise or whether secondees will return to their home organisations after short rotations
Data and digital skills are systemically weak: The OECD's 2023 finding on this is unambiguous and consistent with international benchmarks. Infrastructure procurement increasingly requires skills in data analytics, digital twin technology, and AI-assisted contract management that the
Irish civil service has not yet developed at scale
Grade-skill mismatch is structural: The Irish civil service does not have a formal "Project Delivery Profession" or "Commercial Profession" track equivalent to the UK's — meaning there is no career architecture that would attract, retain, and develop qualified infrastructure specialists.
One person's progression from AO to AP within the procurement/infrastructure space illustrates the generalist pathway: administratively competent, institutionally experienced, but not professionally accredited
I trust you do not mind my drawing attention to a most egregious example of the politics of grand gestures replacing quiet competence over decades - with specific reference to enhancing public transport in the Dublin area. In 1998, the Government decided on a light rail system for Dublin - now LUAS. The original proposal was for one system. Dublin Chamber of Commerce, CIE and the then Director of Traffic for Dublin Corporation lobbied against this on-street network. This led to building two non-interconnected lines. Nearly 30 years later, these lines are still not-interconnected for passenger services. That 1998 decision also included extending the Green Line to Broadstone - via a short tunnel and on to the Airport, using the then unbuilt railway cutting to the Royal Canal. Detailed studies were done, which I still have. One result was the distance between the two rail beds was increased on the Green Line to allow for higher speeds using LUAS trams built for underground running. This 1998 decision was not acted on in the 2000s when the Green LUAS was extended -on-street - to Broadstone. Now the latest wheeze is a ~€16bn. boondoggle Metrolink. This will not be interoperable with either the ~25 year old LUAS or the commuter services on the older heavy rail eg. DART. If built, it will not add experience or build up skills or create supply chains needed for other LUAS type-projects in Cork, Galway or even Dublin. It is an example of "strategic misrepresentation" reinforced by a planning system that has been reduced little more than a limited form of building control, anchored in a view of government as the bureaucratic mediation of interest groups. In October 2015, at the annual meeting of the Dublin Economic Workshop I proposed a North Dublin LUAS Loop and have continued to do so eg. most recently a year ago https://cassandravoices.com/science-environment/does-dublin-require-3-railway-systems/ FYI, I was among a group of residents' associations which proposed and actively campaigned for the Dublin Port Tunnel, even though it went under some of our members' homes. We supported it as one of a set of mutually reinforcing measures that would improve traffic management and enhance our areas.
Your article really struck me because I can recognise parts of what you are describing in ordinary life: people working, paying taxes, trying to contribute, and still feeling trapped by housing costs, public-service gaps, and constant financial pressure.
I also noticed your line about “pissing off the right people” being a sign that you are getting close to something important. I understand the need to provoke debate, but I’m wondering who you believe the “right people” are. Shouldn’t the pressure be directed mainly upwards, towards government, departments, policy-makers, and the systems that allow public money to flow outward without building lasting public capacity?
For people living inside this system now, what is the practical solution? What can ordinary working people actually do, individually or collectively, when the diagnosis is clear, but the pressures are immediate?
I may be wrong on the details, but my understanding is that Finland did not simply rely on market solutions. It used stronger public policy, including Housing First and citizen-led democratic mechanisms, to treat housing as a social necessity rather than just a private commodity.
So my question is: why can’t Ireland have the same level of public ambition? Why are ordinary workers left paying the price for a housing system that does not allow people to live affordably, move for work, or build a stable life?
Your writing is very sharp, and I can see that you have thought deeply about housing, public spending, and how ordinary people are being “super squeezed” with such realities!
Very insightful Sinead, I agree with most of what is said , however, we do have a successful export agency and some very successful food brands etc. However these are the exception for sure, the lack of capability at public level to deliver out services other than redistribute and collect money from the citizens of the country is a real issue for sure, we need a much more capable civil service who can deliver out infrastructure and planning at speed .
We suffer the same mediocrity as the rest of the world when it comes to politicians . Who would want to be a politician ?
As you have said this goes back to the foundations of the state and our party politics has perhaps stopped the civil service from moving forward and organising itself to be more aligned to the needs of the citizens it serves. It needs to be modernised and reshaped to the world we live in today , there are glimpses of ability in certain areas but very few and far between. I haven't heard one politician in government talk about the modernisation of the Civil Service and its service delivery.
There are very few senior civil servants household names ( Robert Watt maybe an exception) why is this so? I agree with you that we need to up our game at this level and encourage a culture of "Cathedral Thinking" rather than what can we get away with until the next Minister is appointed. How should we go about this?
So, we have two by-elections. Is it worth even voting? What if you voted for someone who eventually became a minister with no relevant qualifications running a multi billion departmental budget! And no backup systems in place to even guide them.
I love your analysis, please keep up the good work and describe solutions for us. For we truly are in trouble.
Such an important article - I hope it will be noted by Government and effect change and read by every Irish citizen at home and abroad
Amazing article , damning stuff, very succinctly brings everything together you feel but cant put your finger on
Sin é, 👏👏
Scarily insightful analysis as always - very familiar with HSE and agencies as looked at it for The Currency!
Something missing in the analysis of rental income, This is trickle down economics at work, crumbs of HAP policy works well for that ideological way of thinking,
The Government is the biggest winner from increasing rents through tax collection, and HAP is a token gesture to allow them to say they are doing something, they don't actually want lowers rents and encourage home ownership that would reduce tax collection.
https://claude.ai/share/5f9e2b9a-b8a0-4ec9-8f7f-b0d3944dbfb8
Dead right on those “solution” mongers. Don’t let them deflect you from the problem analysis, Sinéad. Keep going. Staying with the problem is absolutely key. As per Socrates to Meno, “..To search for the solution of a problem is an absurdity. For either you know what you are looking for, and then there is no problem, or you do not know what you are looking for, and then you are not looking for anything and cannot expect to find anything..”. - Keep talking about the problems, describing them, and the proper solutions become unavoidable.
Again, brilliant and important. Wake up lads!!